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Brother U500xd1 5axis
- Thread starter Mtndew
- Start date
- Replies 11
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Orange Vise
Titanium
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2012
- Location
- California
Mid 100s base, under 200 well equipped.
Pretty good value, IMHO.
Pretty good value, IMHO.
thesidetalker
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2015
- Location
- Bay Area, CA
Is it 4+1? Or can it do 5 simultaneous?
I assumed it was 5 axis simultaneous, but after looking a bit more, I can't find anywhere that they specify that. They do say "multi-face machining" a lot though.
bryan_machine
Diamond
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2006
- Location
- Near Seattle
Maybe a PM to some of the speedio folks on here? 2out3?
gkoenig
Titanium
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2013
- Location
- Portland, OR
4+1.
I don't know why though, given that Brother now has a full 5 axis control with TCPC and Dynamic Work Offsets and all the goodness. Could be one of two things;
- Full 5 is new for Brother and they are being cautious by not biting off more then they can chew. They are going to let the new M200 and full 5 axis S series machines pave the way and then eventually release the U500 full 5. This is the Brother way of doing things - sometimes frustratingly slow, but they also don't screw up a whole lot and release half-baked junk.
- The U500 uses the T200A table for the A axis, and the same drive as the M200 for the C axis, but it can swing a full 500mm part. On one hand, this is good because it means they aren't using a bunch of new/unproven stuff. On the other, those drives might not do so well if asked to do dynamic 5 axis machine moves on the tip of a part that pushes that big envelope. Brother is likely a little anxious about selling these things, then having someone put a 450mm turbine blisk job in the 500mm envelope, and then screaming at Brother that their $175k Speedio doesn't perform like a $400k Hermle.
I'll still probably trade in my S700 for one. Very few parts are full 5 axis, and the machines at a similar price point that are full 5 axis are really bad at it (the U500 prices out at or below the UMC500). Solid trade to give up full 5 axis for Brother speed/accuracy/reliability.
crossthread82
Aluminum
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2022
- Location
- Maryland
Problem is my Brother rep told me they won't be bringing the 5th capable S series machines to the US market. Only machine being imported to USA with the D-00v control is the M200xD1-5ax. IMO that's a terrible mistake on Brother since most people don't have a good use case for the M200 but the S-series or U-series is a much better buy. Even if you don't need the full 5th capability, having TCPC/DWO and G68.2 makes doing 4th axis work 100x easier.
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gkoenig
Titanium
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2013
- Location
- Portland, OR
Your rep was correct at the time, but full 5 S series machines are inbound to the USA as of a couple of weeks ago. I inquired about pricing and the D00v up charge is high- it comes with TCPC, G68.2, SubMicron, 3gb memory, and BII. I believe the first ones are 27k. The D00 also (due to export policy) can’t be field upgraded to the V spec- which puts Yamazen in a tricky wicket of what to stock. You can always special-order whatever though.
Be aware, G68.2 doesn’t work on a 4 axis machine as of now, but I believe that is on the way along with a bunch of other features (remember- the C-00 on the latest V12 firmware is a *very* different machine than the ones originally shipped in 2015- Brother does a lot in these upgrades).
Houndogforever
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2015
- Location
- Boring
How do I find out what level firmware I have?
gkoenig
Titanium
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2013
- Location
- Portland, OR
I/O Button
> "Input/Output" soft key (ignore the redundancy of these two steps)
> "Version" soft key (off to the right)
You have a few versions of firmware onboard. The main one is the HMI, current is something like 12.0.26. The other firmwares are for the PLC system that does all the actual work, and the servo system that does all the motion control.
crossthread82
Aluminum
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2022
- Location
- Maryland
I'll have to inquire again then. If I can custom order a SXX machine with the D-00v control that's my ideal choice. Not having to program on rotary center for 4th axis operations is a lifesaver, but you're saying that Brother doesn't support this for 4th work since its not G68.2 compatible right now? Even though the control would be capable of it.
gkoenig
Titanium
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2013
- Location
- Portland, OR
Well, you know how I said that we've seen a lot of features added as firmware updates? One of them was Rotary Fixture Offsets (i.e. Dynamic Work Offsets) back in V10 or so. It is a paid upgrade that requires one of the single point chips, but if you have any machine with a C-00, G54.2 is already available and waiting for you.
The only issue is that the way Brother implements it is sort of funky - they copy the Fanuc behavior. You set the rotary center point in a standard work offset (say, G54), and then on the Rotary Fixture Offset page, you input the delta between that center point and the work offset point on your part. In your program, you call that G54 as your main work offset, and invoke Rotary Fixture Offset by calling G54.2P1. When he was with Yamazen, Ken wrote some nice macros to do all the heavy lifting on the math for you, and the latest Blum macros will also calculate the deltas (call them with W-1. through W-8. to set the delta to the currently active offset in the Rotary Offset Page). Once you wrap your head around it and dial in your workflow, it isn't a big deal at all and G54.2 works perfectly.
Haas DWO is the same function, but your part work offset is just a normal offset. You invoke G254 (notice the number they assigned?) and it pulls the rotary center point data from machine parameters and does the math for you. A much more sensible implementation that I've requested Brother implement as well.